Pascaul Venter named to D3Kicks.com All-American, All-Region teams
MINNEAPOLIS (11/26/06) -- Augsburg College goalkeeper
Pascaul Venter (So., Rochester, Minn./John Marshall HS) was named to the D3Kicks.com All-American men's soccer team on Saturday as a second-team selection, the latest in a season of honors for the Auggie sophomore.
Venter was also named to the All-West Region first team by D3Kicks.com, a national website that covers small-college soccer. Three All-American teams of 11 players each were selected, with Venter one of only six sophomores selected among the 33 players.
Venter was one of the top goalkeepers in all of NCAA Division III men's soccer in 2006. Venter set a single-season shutout record with 12 this year, breaking the old single-season mark of eight set by Augsburg Athletic Hall-of-Famer Mark Anderson in 1980. His 13 career shutouts are now second-most in school history.
Playing all but 141:37 of the team's 1791:43 in goal this season, Venter compiled a 12-3-3 record, making 99 saves (.943 save percentage) while allowing just six goals (0.33 goals-against-average). Venter also earned All-Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference honors this season.
Venter compiled a personal shutout streak of 1,101:05 (929:54 this season and 171:11 from last season), the third-longest individual goalkeeper shutout streak in NCAA Division III history. Peter Boyer of Drew (N.J.) holds the record of 1,428:00, set in 2003, while Terry Leiendecker of St. John's is second with 1,110:00, set in 1982.
As a team, Augsburg set records for most shutouts in a season (14) and lowest goals-against-average (0.30). Among all NCAA Division III squads in the national statistics (as of Nov. 19), Augsburg currently stands first in team save percentage (.945), second in team shutout percentage (0.74) and third in team goals-against-average (0.30), while Venter ranks first in individual save percentage (.943) and fourth in goals-against-average (0.33).
Under head coach
Greg Holker, Augsburg finished 13-3-3 overall, qualifying for the MIAC four-team postseason playoffs for the first time in school history with a 5-2-3, third-place conference finish. The Auggies' 13 wins this season were the second-most in a single season in school history, behind only the 15 wins in the team's MIAC championship season of 1975 (15-2-1), and the 13 points in league play were the most for the Auggies since their last MIAC title season in 1980 (11-1-3 overall, 9-0-3 MIAC, 21 points).
Augsburg had the longest unbeaten/unscored-upon string to start a season in all of NCAA Division III men's soccer this year, a streak that lasted for the first 10 games of the season (8-0-2). Augsburg's consecutive-game shutout streak was halted at 12 games, a span of 1,111:31 (981:31 this season). The streak is the fourth-longest in NCAA Division III history, behind the 17-game streak of Drew (N.J.) in 2003 and the 13-game streaks of St. John's (Minn., 1982) and Muhlenberg (Pa., 1998).
